Stephen King has got to be one of the most prolific writers of horror novels… ever. Even after a supposed retirement from the genre, he returned earlier this year with "Cell" and has a few more books in the works. Thankfully, the retirement just didn’t take. I know a few people who are not King fans and they have every right to feel the way they do. Everyone has different tastes, but I have to admit that King's style really appeals to me. I have yet to read any other genre writer who can deliver as fully-fleshed characters as he can. I also get frustrated with the guy because he also kills off great characters, often as sudden as it is unexpected. To date I have enjoyed every book of his that I've read, though there is no doubt some are not quite as good as others. He can be ponderous at times, but I can truly say that his descriptive powers are so strong as to make me feel like I've experienced his books and not just read them. I also like the fact that almost every one of his books somehow correspond to others.

They're all woven together by his "Dark Tower" series (which I just finished recently). I think one of the most interesting ways that he has done this has been with the books "Desperation" and "The Regulators." The latter was written under the pseudonym if Richard Bachman, but by that time everyone knew it was really King. What he did was to write two separate stories with slightly similar villains. But then he messed without heads by using all of the same character names in each book. Not the characters mind you. Just the names. So f you read the books back to back you had to readjust your imagination in order to see all new characters. It was a very cool experiment and I thought both books were excellent.

There have also been a ton of movies made from his books, some of them brilliant, others total crap. But for that I can only blame the filmmakers. One guy that I think gets it right is director Mick Garris. So far he has done (for TV) "The Stand", "The Shining" and (theatrically) "Riding the Bullet." He is also responsible for producing the superlative series "Masters of Horror" for Showtime. While "Riding the Bullet" wasn't great, it still captured the King's style on what was a very odd tale. But to take on a project like "The Stand" and make it a near perfect adaptation of one of King's longer novels is a feat to be celebrated. I was just as impressed with his version of "The Shining", which put Stanley Kubrick's train wreck of a version to shame.

So now we come to "Desperation", Garris' latest foray into a King adaptation. The story revolved around an ancient Chinese demon named Tak, who is unleashed out of an old mine that sits beneath the town of Desperation. It kills all of the townspeople, but must possess a living creature in order to continue to survive. We are first introduced to Tak by way of the town's sheriff, Collie Entragian (Ron Perlman). He pulls over a couple (Annabeth Gish and Henry Thomas) outside of town and arrests them for drug possession. Of course we know they didn’t have the drugs to begin with. As the story progresses we learn about others who have been stopped both before and after the first couple we see. I really don’t want to get too much more into the plot, because anything else I tell you would be an even worse spoiler than I've already given.

First I'd like to tell you what was good about "Desperation." All of the actors tore into their roles with relish, most notably Perlman. As the embodiment of Tak, his physical performance was dead on as the spirit 'outgrew the body. And his schizophrenic line delivery matches everything I envisioned of the character when reading the book. Tom Skerritt was also great as the cynical writer stopped 'dead' in the middle of his big book tour.

What didn't work for me was the film's running time. It aired on one night and ran just over two hours. Garris' earlier adaptations ran for four nights and three nights, consecutively, and "Desperation" deserved the same. I understand it was supposed to be a longer mini-series event, but got cut back. This is to the film's detriment because everything seems rushed, especially the ending. This made the story feel disjointed and the flow was all wrong. Main plot points were either cut out altogether or thrown at you in such a hurry that it was easy to miss some of them. Because of this one fact, it is the least of Garris' adaptations.

I thought I might give "Desperation" another try on the recent Lion's Gate DVD release and while it was much better without all the commercial interruptions, it still felt like everything happened to fast. Still, the release has value beyond what enjoyment there is in the performances in the film as it includes a great commentary by Garris, who is joined by Ron Perlman and Producer Mark Sennet. There's also a welcome interview with Stephen King.

"Desperation" is still better fare than a lot of horror films out there, its just not an example of Mick Garris at his best. .

Directed by: Mick Garris
Starring: Tom Skerritt, Steven Weber, Annabeth Gish, Charles Durning, Henry Thomas, Ron Perlman, Matt Frewer
Extras: Audio Commentary by Director Mick Garris, Actor Ron Perlman and Producer Mark Sennet, Postcards from Bangor Me - featuring Stephen King
Specifications: Widescreen (1.85:1), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound
Studio: Lions Gate
Release Date: 8/29/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: R
Website

We'll give Stephen King's Desperation a C.